Numbers 31:1-54

Prior to the death of Moses, God told him to go and make war with the Midianites.  These people had tried to curse the children of Israel and then tried to pollute them through idolatry and immorality.  God had already dealt with Israel’s disobedience through the plague He sent, but now it was time for God to deal with the people of Midian.  It is always very important to remember that God is just.  There are times when it seems that sinners are not brought to justice and there are times when it seems to us that God’s judgment is severe.  We must recognize that God is always just in His dealings with men.  He may extend His grace for longer than we understand but He is still just.  We may not have all the information as to the depth of the sin in some nations, but we can rest assured that God’s judgment is always just.

GOD’S PUNISHMENT OF MIDIAN: The kings of Midian recognized that Israel was blessed of God and they had great fear of the people.  They tried to have Balaam curse the nation and when that did not work, they tempted the nation to sin at Balaam’s advice.  They knew of God’s blessing, yet they chose to rebel against God and try to overthrow those who were blessed of God instead of repenting of their sin and asking for mercy and grace from this great God.  They were too proud to bow to the God of Israel and tried to do their very best to destroy God’s people.  They paid for this rebellion with their lives.  Balaam too was killed because of his part in advising the nation to invoke the wrath of God on the people.  Sin has consequences.  Those consequences may not always be readily visible to us and they may take more time than we imagine, but we must never be fooled into thinking that they do not exist.

GOD’S PROVISION FOR ISRAEL: Israel comes away from this war with a great amount of plunder in the way of animals, riches and female slaves.  Moses commanded that every male and every female who had potentially participated in the temptation of the men of Israel were to be killed.  The plunder from the war was divided evenly between the warriors and the rest of the people.  The warriors were to give one in every five hundred of their plunder to Eleazar the priest and the people were to give one in every fifty to the Levites.  Those who participated in the war were given more, but there was still a great amount of wealth that was distributed to all of the people.  It is important to know that God owns everything and He will make provision for His people as He sees fit.  We can trust in Him and know of His provision, but we also must be willing to do the work that He has called us to do.  The men had to go to war and do the work, but God blessed that work and met their needs through it.

GOD’S PROTECTION OF WARIORS: When the warriors of Israel came together to look at what they had done and take an account for their losses in battle, they realized that not one single man from Israel had been killed in the battle.  They quickly realized that even though they were the ones who had gone to war; that the reality was that God had fought the battle for them.  God had protected them in a supernatural way and they wanted to thank Him for it by giving an offering to the Lord from their portion of the goods.  It is a great comfort to know that we serve a God who is completely able to protect us in a supernatural way.  He does not always do this for reasons of His own determination, but He is always able to do so.  We can always trust Him to do what is best and know that there is no need to fear when we are doing His will.  God is our strong protector and we can walk faithfully with Him in great assurance of this glorious truth.